Mechanical Properties of Fe-TiC Composites for Friction Stir Welding Tool Application by a Spark Plasma Sintering

Abstract

TiC, which has high hardness, was added to reinforcing material to improve the mechanical property of Fe. Fe-TiC composites as a function of TiC contents were fabricated by high energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering. The Fe-TiC composites were synthesized with different TiC contents (5, 10, and 20 wt.%) and subsequently consolidated by rapid sintering at 850℃ under 60 MPa. The relative density of Fe-TiC composites is from 99.5% to 94% as the TiC contents increased. Due to the increased in TiC contents, which contributes to the sintering rate with low wettability and low deformation at high temperature, has resulted in a decrease of relative density. The hardness of Fe-TiC was ranged from 128.9±10.4 to 687.2±14.6 kg/mm 2 as the TiC contents increased. Particularly, the highest hardness of TiC weight percent was 20 wt.% TiC which was related with Hall-Patch relationship. Also this enhancement was attributed to the dispersion strengthening effect of the agglomerated powders and solid solution strengthening through high energy ball milling. Microstructure, and phase analysis of Fe-TiC composites were investigated.